The faster Apple MacBook Air M5 is here, but there’s one drawback

 

Apple’s week of updated hardware keeps chugging along with the MacBook Air M5, which arrives alongside MacBook Pro updates we expected to see last year. When it comes to what’s different, the news is all about under-the-hood chip changes that should ensure this MacBook Air is just as future-proof as last year’s. But unlike with the iPad Air M4 that Apple announced yesterday, the pricing news for the MacBook Air isn’t exactly good — though it’s not all that bad either.

The MacBook Air M5 arrives with big shoes to fill, as it’s replacing the best laptop on the market. Let’s dive into every little bit of news from Cupertino so you’re aware of your choices before preorders begin tomorrow, March 4, ahead of the March 11 release date.

A faster MacBook Air with more storage, but at what cost?

In its press release announcing the MacBook Air M5, Apple claims that web browsing will be as much as 50% faster than an Intel Core Ultra X7-based PC laptop and that “more demanding tasks get up to 2x faster performance.” The MacBook Air M5 is also gaining speedier memory that should provide “smoother multitasking and faster app launches.” Its bigger boasts came for generative AI-based performance, as the MacBook Air M5 is rated to be as much as four times faster than the MacBook Air M4 on those tasks and up to 9.5x faster than the MacBook Air M1.

Apple

The new MacBook Air also benefits from more local storage, with a starting SSD capacity of 512GB, a boost from the 256GB drive in previous years. This comes with the caveat that the MacBook Air M5 now starts at $1,099, which is $100 more than last year. This marks a bit of a reversal for this laptop, as the MacBook Air M4 came in at $100 less than the MacBook Air M3 before it. Apple did not explain what changed in its press release, but we have to consider that the generative AI-related memory shortages that raised the Samsung Galaxy S26’s price by $100 could be to blame.

That price increase isn’t explained elsewhere in the MacBook Air M5, as its 13-inch and 15-inch models are exactly the same size and weight as the M4 models, which is good for anyone with form-fitting cases, bags and accessories. Both laptops look to still pack the same Liquid Retina displays that we’ve loved before, and Apple’s quoting the same battery life for this year’s model as it did for the previous iteration. To find other differences, you’ll need to squint under the hood to see that Apple’s upgraded wireless connectivity support from Wi-Fi 6E to Wi-Fi 7, which lets it take advantage of the increased data bandwidth in current Wi-Fi routers and mesh routers. You also get a bump to Bluetooth 6 from Bluetooth 5.3, for higher-quality connections.

The MacBook Pro M5 finally looks complete

Last year, I was a bit confused when Apple released the MacBook Pro M5 in just a 14-inch model, without the 16-inch design or the speedier M5 Pro and M5 Max chips that we expect to see every year. Well, I guess Tim’s cooks in Apple’s kitchens just needed more time.

Apple

Now, the newer versions of the speedier MacBooks are here, and they have a price and storage change that looks a lot like what happened with the MacBook Air M5. Yes, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts with 1TB instead of the 512GB in the previous model, but it starts at $2,699. That’s is $200 higher than the price of the 16-inch Macbook Pro with M4 Pro, which was $2,499 before customization.

Apple’s press release quotes John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, as stating the new M5 Pro and M5 Max options are as much as four times faster than their M4 Pro and M4 Max counterparts. Apple also claims these models will provide an increase in graphics performance of up to 50% compared with those models.

The M5 Pro- and M5 Max-equipped MacBook Pros also get the Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 upgrades that the MacBook Air also got, which last fall’s 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 did not. All M5 series MacBook Pros will let you sound better on calls, thanks to their new Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum microphone modes that weren’t in the M4 series.